A Pleasant Surprise: Lopunny Discussion

My first Analysis will be on a strange new pokemon named Lopunny. Like most people, when i first saw this thing's ability, all i could think of was how terrible it would be, but after actually sitting down and pondering on it for a while, i realised that this could be a very powerful pokemon indeed, mainly due to item switching...

OK, this first set relies on the Klutz ability, and the move Switcheroo. The trick here is to switch items with the oponent, giving them a perma-burn (even if they use aromatherapy, it just comes back) and lowering thier attack. Then use of Swagger (which is fine when combined with flame orb) Encore and Rest, to keep the oponent at bay while the burn orb gets to work. When you think you have done enough, just switch the orb back again, and switch out to something that can finish it off. Not the best strategy in the world, as it has a few counters, but this thing is more to confound the opponent than anything else.

This guy basically has the ability to make any opponent's speed fall by about 90%. Switching Iron orb also means that the opponent's pokemon are weak to gound attacks and spikes, great if you dont have a pokemon which is able to use gravity. Fling is more there as a novelty than anything else, as it would be rather funny to use up the oponent's item, and the switch your own one back... still, it needs some form of attack, so why not?

Plays rather like Jolteon as a BPer, and does it rather well with it's high speed. It can pass on speed and subs to the oponents, and has the advantage of being able to cute charm most things which try to hit it. As an added bonus, it gets Heal Wish which is able to heal the next pokemon sent out if it happens to faint, and Charge beam which has a 70% chance of raising Sp.Atk (not for you to use, but for the pokemon you are passing to)

Other Options

There is a few more things this can do, but dont really work without a decent healing move, like Mirror Coat and Magical Coat. They would be rather surprising if they were able to work though, and would catch quite a few pokemon off guard. There is also things like toxic and attract (not really needed if you are using Cute Charm though) which work on any kind of staller, and dont forget that this thing is really fast too.

So there you have it, an unexpected Pokemon can actually do some good. As I said before, when I first saw this guy I thought he was just another weak Pokemon, and he kind of is, but it has great potential.

Discuss. ^_^

Note: I'm not sure if anyone did an analysis on Lopunny already, but oh well. I found him really interesting and felt like I should write up a post about him.

The trick potential of this thing is huge. I'd start with the iron orb or black sludge, and give her a jolly nature with Switcheroo/Thunder Wave/Charm/Dizzy Punch, although any attack could be subbed into the last slot. Whatever your team needs.

To the original poster: Pretty well written, though I don't like your way of formatting the moves. Categorizing them in Special, Physical and Support Moves is the standard way and much easier to read. You don't need to show EVERY move, just the useful (or gimmick) ones. Also, please put a link to serebii's page of Lopunny in your post.

Your movesets and their strategies, however, need some help. For your first set, why would anyone keep the burned, swaggered pokémon in, especially while you do something as dangerous as Rest in this supposed-to-be hyper offensive metagame? The second set doesn't do it much better either and Fling doesn't really count as an attack. The third set could work, but I feel like it is outclassed by something. Lol, can't figure out who though.

Lopunny's stats are awful. I see the only "useful" way of using it instead of something else is Sneaking (I refuse to call that move "Switcheroo." Seriously! The name is even more hideous than U-Turn!) Orbs to the opponent. Maybe a hax set with
Lopunny @ Flame Orb
Trait: Klutz
EVs: Something like 252 HP / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Sneak (Switcheroo...)
- Swagger
- Agility / Filler
- Baton Pass / Filler
Burn that Heracross and Swagger it. Should it fail, you've lost the match :P . If you encounter a special attacker instead, just swagger it and hope for the best. Anyways, set up an agility and baton pass it to something. The Bpass-moves could also be replaced by something that is cabable of breaking a Gengar's sub. However I highly doubt this would ever work.

BTW, wasn't there a lopunny discussion a while ago?

Edit: Now that I came to think about it, Charm could work even better..

Anyway, I wasn't planning on using this in a competitive team, I was just examining its overall potential. It can definitely be used as an annoyer, but I could probably put a better Pokemon in the space it fills up.

I came up with the best move sets I could think of, and I think they may serve some purpose in somebody's team. I'm sure you could build a team around this Pokemon if you know how to use it right.

And like I said in the post, I wasn't sure if anyone wrote a discussion on Lopunny prior to this post, and I wasn't planning on searching through every single post on this board to find out xDD ;);)

I happen to think Switcheroo + Fling would be awesome. For support there's no better way to screw an opponent then to fling all their items at them, removing them permanently unless they have LOL Recycle. Even if flung leftovers does crap damage, they won't be getting them back.

That's a fairly long list. Not many things want to be attacking later or last, and a Salamence holding a Lagging Tail is useless. Any non-Guts physical attacker hates Burn status and probably won't enjoy losing their Choice Band/Leftovers, so the Flame Orb is useful there. Choice items, most notably the Choice Scarf, can screw up quite a few Pokemon, mostly walls.

Since we learned about Lopunny's trait I've always thought this thing would manage to carve itself a little niche that could see it used in OU. We'll obviously have to wait and see if this is true, but I can see it happening.

Lagging Tail and Choice Items are the only items that should even be considered for Switcheroo - the disabling effectiveness of them is far superior to anything else.

Which item you use really depends on what you fear and what you want Lopunny to counter. Choice Specs stands out because Lopunny beats Garchomp and can really mess it up by locking it into Swords Dance or something. Same case for Heracross, though generally you'll be predicting it, of course. It's hard to really predict a switch into Lopunny - it's always risky for your opponent, because even if they know Lopunny has Switcheroo, they don't know what item it's carrying, and the wrong item on the wrong Pokemon could spell ruin.

A note about Lagging Tail - I mostly consider it a good Infernape counter, since Infernape likes pretty much any Choice item (unless you swap out a Choice item for its opposite, but that's just plain luck).

The other option, and I like this, is to ignore Klutz and make Lopunny a straight-up Choice Bander with Switcheroo on the side. You can easily stop Garchomp with Ice Punch, so it comes with a bit of use in addition to tricking the CB. The obvious downside is that you're a bit more predictable.

One shouldn't be so rash as to focus just on Switcheroo. Lopunny has incredible defensive capabilities. Its stats are set so that it can live through both a Salamence's CS's Draco Meteor as well as a Salamence's Dragon Danced Dragon Claw under the same EV spread.

It's a hax set. You burn and swagger Heracross, pumping his attack to insane levels, then hope desperately he hits himself in the balls.

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That's exactly my point. It's a hax set after all :P . As I said, should the 'cross succeed hitting, you are dead.

At the moment of posting I was pretty sleepy as I didn't realize that Klutz prevents Black Steel Orb / Lagging Tail (whatever its name is) from Dropping Lopunny's speed (was only thinking about the orbs...). That could be even much of a threat but yeah, you could always just use Thunder Wave for dropping the opponent's speed (not counting grounds) and 100% acc burn IS nice.Edit: I'm still pretty sleepy : P Yeah, Choice Items will most likely be used as Lopunny is unaffected by them.

Fling could be considered over Switcheroo as it triggers the burn immediately while Switcheroo'd Flame Orb activates at the end of the turn... unless I'm completely mistaken, which wouldn't be much of a surprise.

It's still terrible though.

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Sure is, but isn't Lopunny : ( ? Not to even mention his awful attack, his defensive capabilities are average at best. Though status / Sneaked Choice Item + Bpass could do as his speed is great...

Fling could be considered over Switcheroo as it triggers the burn immediately while Switcheroo'd Flame Orb activates at the end of the turn... unless I'm completely mistaken, which wouldn't be much of a surprise.

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There's another reason to use Switcheroo over Fling, which I mentioned in someone's RMT recently. While Fling deals a ~40BP move and burns the opponent, Switcheroo burns the opponent and also deprives them of their original item. Watch Blissey fall due to no Leftovers, or Suicune for that matter. Watch Specsmence becomes less threatening without its Choice Specs. It deprives them of something that they usually need for their strategy to work, which makes it superior to Fling imo.

For the Lagging Tail specifically If you gave your opponent Lagging Tail if you then used Roar (or brought in something to use roar) does roar still go last because of priority modifier? Or would Roar go first because of Lagging Tail on Opponent? I think thats somewhat an important strategic question to consider

Anyways, i went with Resttalk and hurl in one of my sets, quick attack/rest/hurl in another.

Here are the uses:
Switcheroo: The main reason why i'll use this thing
Quick Attack: get those reversal pokes.
Ice Punch: To OHKO Sally/Gabby
Rest: To give it more survivablity
Hurl: To throw away that leftovers and steal more items
Sleep Talk + Rest: To basically make it a super luck whore. If added with hurl, this thing is hilarious.

I happen to think Switcheroo + Fling would be awesome. For support there's no better way to screw an opponent then to fling all their items at them, removing them permanently unless they have LOL Recycle. Even if flung leftovers does crap damage, they won't be getting them back.

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Actually, Recycle only works if you used up an item, not if you trade it away. At least, that's the way it worked in Advance. I tested it because I wanted to try a Mr. Mime that could distribute Leftovers to all its allies in a Double Battle with Item Clause. It didn't work.

The question now is, does Recycle bring back an item that you've lost to Fling?

The other option, and I like this, is to ignore Klutz and make Lopunny a straight-up Choice Bander with Switcheroo on the side. You can easily stop Garchomp with Ice Punch, so it comes with a bit of use in addition to tricking the CB. The obvious downside is that you're a bit more predictable.

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Yeah, this is the idea I had, but I took it a few steps further: Lopunny can singlehandedly disable Blissey, AND catch other CBers off guard with this setup. This is what I'd use on Lopunny:

This guy gets really dangerous when you know who your opponent's CBer is. If your opponent pulls out Blissey, you counter with Lopunny. If you give Bliss a CB, she's completely disabled, and Lopunny gets to use the Leftovers without Klutz in effect. However, if your opponent switches to another CBer, you're accomplishing nothing, and forcing either a sacrifice or a switch on your part. Lopunny's effective if you know who they're gonna switch too; instead of Switcheroo'ing, you predict the switch and whack someone, like CBTar or CBVile, with a CB'd attack of your own. T-Tar dislikes CB'd Focus Punches, even if they're from whimpy Lopunny. The elemental punch can counter whatever you fear most, whether it's Garchomp(Ice), Heracross(Fire), or Gyarados(Thunder). Fling for laughs I guess. :P Moreover, Lopunny's got good speed, so if you don't KO 'em with the first hit, he can outrun a good amount of Pokemon.

I can't wait to try this out now...Infernape rofls at it, but it can't take on everything :P.

This guy gets really dangerous when you know who your opponent's CBer is. If your opponent pulls out Blissey, you counter with Lopunny. If you give Bliss a CB, she's completely disabled, and Lopunny gets to use the Leftovers without Klutz in effect. However, if your opponent switches to another CBer, you're accomplishing nothing, and forcing either a sacrifice or a switch on your part. Lopunny's effective if you know who they're gonna switch too; instead of Switcheroo'ing, you predict the switch and whack someone, like CBTar or CBVile, with a CB'd attack of your own. T-Tar dislikes CB'd Focus Punches, even if they're from whimpy Lopunny. The elemental punch can counter whatever you fear most, whether it's Garchomp(Ice), Heracross(Fire), or Gyarados(Thunder). Fling for laughs I guess. :P Moreover, Lopunny's got good speed, so if you don't KO 'em with the first hit, he can outrun a good amount of Pokemon.

I can't wait to try this out now...Infernape rofls at it, but it can't take on everything :P.

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That's actually a really good variation on what I originally posted. You got an awesome idea there.

I posted this discussion only to discuss Lopunny's potential - I wasn't planning on using the Poke. But now seeing this, and considering that Blissey is on most teams, I just might try this out.